


Never There

by Cranksta



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gabriel has a wife and daughter, Gabriel is a disaster bisexual, Gabriel is getting divorced, Gabriel is realizing that his feelings for Jack aren't entirely platonic, Gabriel isn't a bad guy he just makes bad decisions, Gen, Jack is oblivious, Jack is trying to be a good friend, M/M, Some Family Feels, This starts heavy and gets smutty from there I promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-18 00:13:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17570615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cranksta/pseuds/Cranksta
Summary: Gabriel got married young and quick- it falls apart years later with their daughter caught in the middle.Gabriel is a wreck and slowly coming to terms with it all and Jack is the only person he can turn to.Jack tries his best.And Gabriel realizes that sometimes the love you need the most has been right in front of you the whole time.





	Never There

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to come right out and say that yeah- this is going to be a "Gabriel Reyes realizes that he's bisexual" fic with all the tropes that come along with that. Some fun, some not. I write this with all the love my disaster bisexual heart can manage.
> 
> The first chapter is from Jack's perspective- the others will be from Gabriel's.

Jack woke with a start, breath coming fast and heavy before he realized what he was hearing.

 

Rubbed at his forehead as he clambered out of bed, barely glancing at the clock reading 2:16AM before trotting to the door which hadn’t stopped clattering in its bracing since he woke.

 

Slapping the lockpanel, Jack was ready to tear a new one into whoever woke him before he snapped his mouth shut, realizing what he was seeing.

 

Gabriel was on the other side, eyes red and wet, distinct trails of black mist falling off the edges of his body as he sobbed heavily.

 

“Christ, Gabe get in here. What’s going on?”

 

He shuffled Gabriel inside, pushing him towards the couch in his quarters and forcing him to sit down. Jack watches as Gabriel chucks a dark folder onto the coffee table and shoves his face in his hands. Jack takes a moment to squeeze Gabriel’s shoulder before reaching over for the folder.

 

It’s hefty, formal.  _ Legal _ .

 

Pulling back the cover, Jack sucks in a breath.

 

“Petition for Divorce” is all he reads before throwing it back down.

 

“Fuck. Gabe I...”

 

Gabriel hasn’t moved from his hunched spot on the couch, and Jack doesn’t know what to say.

 

He thinks of the first time Gabriel talked about Nadia.

 

===

 

_ They were fucking around in SEP, playing cards for candy swiped from the commissary and talking about what life was like before all this. Before they became lab rats. _

 

_ Urchike talks about her fiance back home. How they’re planning a wedding at Disney World once this is all over. They’ve already bought matching dresses and rings- just need the fucking war to end. _

 

_ Heard talks about his wife and their twins. They’re just about to start kindergarten and he wants to be back by the time they leave elementary. Maybe move them all onto base with him somewhere. See them to college. _

 

_ Jack talks about his ex- how they had to separate before he shipped out but how he’s still the driving force for Jack to do better and try harder. He’s fighting for the life he would’ve had if the war hadn’t taken it from him and made him change. He wants to go back home and help his parents run the farm if there’s anything left by the end of all this. _

 

_ And Reyes? Reyes’ eyes light like fireworks when he talks about Nadia. There’s a gold band on his tags and he spins a tale about how he spotted her at basic before coming here. Talks about how he’s pretty sure his heart stopped when he saw her- made an idiot out of himself by running into a jeep and still managed to get a date -or whatever could pass for a date in basic. _

 

_ Jack smiles as he sees how happy Gabe looks. They’ve become fast friends here and it makes his chest warm to see that he has someone who means so much to him. _

 

_ “Wait- if you met in basic before gettin’ here then when did y’all get married?” _

 

_ Jack nods at Stephens, eyes questioning. _

 

_ Gabriel beams. _

 

_ “Found a chapel fifteen miles from base. Snuck out a few nights before my shipment and made it official. Plan on doing something more once I get back home.” _

 

_ “Jesus, Reyes. That’s fucking insane! You we’re dating for what- a few weeks?” _

 

_ Gabriel shakes his head, laughing. _

 

_ “Yeah, but you know what they say. You just know when you know.” _

 

_ Gabriel lays down the winning hand, swiping a few hard candies from the table. _

 

_ “And I just knew.” _

 

===

 

“She wants full custody of Rhea.”

 

Jack closes his eyes.

 

Fuck. Gabe’s daughter is barely fucking seven. How is this going to be good for any of them?

 

“Did she say why? Maybe you could try counseling and still fix this?”

 

Gabriel stands abruptly.

 

“We’ve already  _ tried _ , Jack! We already went through all this and I fucking- I couldn’t- “

 

Gabriel lets out a choking gasp and Jack is up in an instant, pulling Gabe close. He’s shaking, soaking a spot into Jack’s shoulder as he falls apart.

 

“I-I wasn’t ever home enough, Jack. I m-missed my only daughter’s  _ birthday _ this year because I was halfway accross the f-fucking world tracking down illegal weapons shimpents. This job, Jack. It-”

 

He stops short. They both know they don’t regret a single thing being part of Overwatch has taken from them- and he also knows that it’s ripping Gabriel apart because they  _ should. _

 

Gabriel doesn’t speak again for sometime until Jack realizes they’re both too exhausted.

 

Jack grabs Gabriel’s shirt as he realizes he’s getting ready to go back to his quarters. He’s not about to leave his best friend alone with this.

 

“C’mon, I’ve got extra clothes for you. You’re staying here.”

 

Gabriel is too exhausted to protest, and Jack can see in the way he carries his shoulders that he doesn’t want to. He needs this.

 

They wash up and Jack barely glances at the clock telling him he’ll need to get up in two hours when he grabs the extra blankets and crawls into bed, pulling Gabe in with him.

 

They curl together tightly- just like they did back in SEP when everything got too much and being alone felt like a prison. The bed isn’t nearly as small as it was back then, but they know no other way to do this than by sharing the same space. Existing as one being.

 

Sometimes it was the only way they could sleep.

 

There’s silence, Gabriel’s breath warming his chest when he finally speaks again.

 

“Four months ago- when we started going to counselling. I can’t get the image out of my head of the way she looked when she talked about everything. She was tired, angry. I’ve never seen her like that- fuck I don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry that much before.”

 

Jack squeezes reassuringly, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

 

“I can’t get the fucking image out of my mind when she finally said what was getting to her the most. ‘I’m lonely.’ - Jack she was fucking  _ lonely _ . And I… I couldn’t fix it.”

 

Jack stays quiet, pulling Gabriel even closer and slipping into the new bought of silence.

 

He can feel a hand curl into the back of his shirt and he can’t help but wonder.

 

If she was the only one who felt lonely.

 

===

 

The next few weeks are hell.

 

Gabriel is practically living with him- especially after the night he got his things from their shared home shipped in. Gabriel came stumbling into Jack’s quarters afterwards, crawling onto the couch and weeping onto Jack’s stomach where he’d shoved his face into.

 

Jack waited patiently for him to speak, massaging his shoulders while he sat.

 

“Eight boxes, Jack. That’s all that was mine in that house. With our daughter.  _ Eight fucking boxes.  _ Did I even live there?”

 

Jack knows the answer is no. Gabriel has spent more nights on base or abroad then he ever spent at his home. Going home to his family was something that was done on vacations. 

 

Nadia hadn’t wanted Rhea to grow up on a military base. Wanted to stay close to her family. She’d done her time in the service just like the rest of them and wanted a life away from it.

 

He remembers the nights Gabriel talked to him about retiring- going home and living the rest of his life as a civvie. Or as much as he could be given the things about both of them that changed through military experimentation. Neither of them would ever be  _ free _ , but they could’ve stopped at any time. Sought out more normal lives.

 

Gabriel always talked about it, but never did it. Couldn't give it up any more than Jack himself could. Gabriel made that choice every year spent away from his family and it led to this.

 

He doesn’t say what’s on his mind- just tries to be a comfort. Gabriel deserves that much from him and Jack knows that Gabriel already understands that this is something he’s caused at least in part. He’s not going to pour salt in the wounds.

 

Gabriel doesn’t go back to his own quarters after that night and over the next few weeks Jack finds more and more of Gabe’s things stashed in places around his quarters. 

 

Gabriel sleeps on his couch most nights- in his bed on deposition days.

 

Jack can’t help but feel he’s seen more of Gabriel in the last few weeks than in the last few years combined. It’s nice- even if Gabriel is grieving and unhappy. They’re falling back into old routines- cooking and exercising and resting together.

 

Jack has felt lonely for years- never quite dated again after Vincent and wonders if maybe this is a sign he should try. He misses having someone around he can share everything with. Gabriel will eventually get on his feet and get back out there and find someone much better for himself.

 

And Jack? Jack isn’t sure where he’ll find himself in another eight years- but he doesn’t want to wake up at 35 alone in his own bed just like it was when he went to sleep.

 

Gabriel is cussing from the kitchen and Jack laughs when he looks over to see the burnt remnants of whatever he was supposed to be making that night.

 

It’s domestic as fuck and it makes his heart ache.

 

“Shit- wanna get burgers?”

 

Jack laughs.

 

“Yeah, but you’re paying.”

 

Gabriel makes a face as the food burnt into his skillet refuses to come out even when turned upside down into the sink. 

 

“Deal.”

 

===

 

Nadia does get full custody.

 

Gabriel doesn’t even have a leg to stand on to fight it and now he’s been delegated to a “One weekend a month, every other holiday” kind of father. Gabriel is devastated- Rhea is his everything. The person he tries so hard for even if he isn’t be the kind of father he wishes he could be.

 

===

 

_ Jack remembers getting the call when Nadia went into labor. _

 

_ It was a few weeks too early. Gabriel was frantic on the phone as the nurses tried to stave off the birth for as long as possible. _

 

_ Gabriel was sobbing, blaming himself. They knew SEP would fuck with this somehow. Gabriel had been home on medical leave because of the complications- was due to start paternity leave in just over a month. _

 

_ Jack flew in as soon as Gabriel told him the doctors couldn’t stop it. His daughter was going to be born premature and all they could do now was prepare. He walked into the military hospital- the only place around Gabriel and Nadia’s California home with enough security clearance for this kind of thing. _

 

_ Nadia had already been wheeled in for emergency cesarean and Gabriel wasn’t answering his messages. Ana told him to just wait and keep out of their hair. _

 

_ He sets up on the couch-bed that clearly looks like Gabriel has been sleeping in and waits. _

 

_ He sees the relief on Gabriel’s face as he follows behind a slightly doped up Nadia being wheeled into place- there’s a visceral drop in stress as soon as they make eye contact. _

 

_ Nadia is stable and resting and Gabriel takes him to the Nursery, beaming as he realizes Jack’s confused expression. _

 

_ He points to one small bundle of pink blankets and looks on the verge of tears. _

 

_ “She’s okay, Jack. Small, but she’s okay. She’s coming home with us tomorrow- isn’t that fucking amazing?” _

 

_ Jack beams, relieved as warmth fills his chest at Gabriel’s happiness. _

 

_ “Yeah, Gabe. She’s really something.” _

 

_ Gabriel lets him hold her later. _

 

_ Nadia is watching, smiling fondly as Gabriel shows off his new baby girl. _

 

_ Jack isn’t quite expecting the impossibly small bundle to be set into his arms but she’s there and all Jack knows to do is stiffen up and wait for guidance. Gabriel helps arrange his arms better and Jack relaxes into it. It reminds him of the time Gabriel and he were in the hospital waiting for Ana. Only instead of Fareeha in his arms- it’s Gabriel’s daughter and that thought makes the warmth in his chest expand quickly. _

 

_ He knows in that moment just like he knew with Fareeha that he would do anything for the small bundle in his arms- perhaps even more so because this is a part of Gabriel and Gabriel’s family is his family.  _

 

_ “What’s her name?” _

 

_ Gabriel looks excitedly over to his wife and Nadia laughs. _

 

_ “You tell him!” _

 

_ Gabriel’s voice is cracking as the emotion leaks out of his words. _

 

_ “Rhea Francesca Valdez-Reyes.” _

 

_ Jack blinks, taking in what he just heard until he can feel wetness building up in his eyes. She’s been given his middle name and he can hardly keep it in. _

 

_ “No shit?” _

 

_ Gabriel grins, gripping one of his arms gently. _

 

_ Nadia speaks softly from the bed. _

 

_ “We were hoping that you’d be Godfather. Thought we’d get more time to ask, but well…” _

 

_ He’s nodding before she even finished her sentence, rocking on the balls of his feet. _

 

_ “Yes- of course. I’d be honoured.” _

 

_ One glance at Gabriel and Jack is sure that he’s never seen him so happy before. _

 

_ They make eye contact briefly and Jack realizes that this is something he will look back on for the rest of his life as a sign that he’d done something right- something good enough to earn this. _

 

_ Gabriel is exhausted and a little sweaty from the last 48 hours of events, but fuck he looks stunning like this. Like a man who’s realized his place and purpose in life. _

 

_ And he’ll do anything to protect that. _

 

===

 

Gabriel is sobbing into his shoulder and shouting about how it’s been four months since he last saw his daughter- even before the divorce started.

 

“I didn’t try hard enough, Jack. Fuck, I- just let it slip past me like she didn’t mean anything to me. I fucking caused all of this, didn’t I?”

 

Jack holds onto his best friend and stays quiet like he doesn’t know the answer to that.

 

Like he’s not grieving too.

 

He didn’t get any visitation rights in the mediation.

 

===

 

Gabriel gets angry.

 

Jack knows that it was only a matter of time before the shock and pain wore down enough to leave the wild animal that is an emotionally-injured Gabriel Reyes.

 

Gabriel can handle being kicked down. Shot. Beaten. Left for days alone without rations or any hope of coming back home- but he can’t handle this.

 

Jack realizes this is technically Gabriel’s first big breakup. He didn’t date a lot as a teen and with the whirlwind marriage that he went through at 19- Jack isn’t surprised that Gabriel doesn’t know how to cope.

 

This thing between Nadia and Gabriel- it’s been coming for a long time and it’s like the only person who didn’t see it is Gabriel himself. They were a good couple, yes- but it burned bright and fast and injured them both.

 

They cared for each other, but sometimes Jack wonders if they ever really  _ loved _ each other.

 

Wartime love is a fickle thing. It doesn’t always survive peace. Especially if one person is ready to leave it all behind and one person isn’t.

 

Jack gets angry too.

 

He would’ve given anything for the opportunity Gabriel had- to have a normal fucking life with a family with someone who gave a shit about him. Would he have actually taken it? He’s not sure- Overwatch is everything to him now. He’s grinding away every day to build a better world and hope that he doesn’t ever have to go back to war.

 

Gabriel? Gabriel doesn’t know how to exist outside of the environment they were built for.

 

Jack doesn’t think either of them are bad people because of all this- but hates that it was all so avoidable with just the smallest bit of care.

 

Gabriel tried. Fell in love young and forgot that there’s more to a relationship than just falling in love- you have to maintain it too. Gabriel didn’t know how.

 

Jack wonders if maybe Gabriel wasn’t motivated enough to care in the first place. Maybe it was just a case of them being the wrong people for each other but right at that moment seven years ago.

 

They spar in the gym often and they remember what it is to feel pain- something difficult to encounter given their conditions. Given what they’ve been shaped into.

 

Jack thinks for a second that there’s something in Gabriel’s eyes when they’re laying on the mat together, blood caking as their wounds close themselves.

 

A small spark of fire as Gabriel grins at him before doubling over in laughter.

 

They really beat the shit out of each other, but Jack hasn’t felt this light in months.

 

“Wanna go take a shower?”

 

"Yeah."

 

They’ll be alright.

 

===

 

It’s weeks after the paperwork was finalized and Gabriel is still an open wound.

 

He’s sleeping in his own quarters again and there’s distance there that wasn’t there before and Jack hates it. It’s like Gabriel is blocking him off.

 

He misses Gabriel.

 

===

 

_ He remembers one night on one of those rare instances where both he and Gabriel were able to get the same days of vacation. Gabriel and Nadia wanted to take Rhea to Disneyland and Jack came along for the ride because he was 25 and had never gone. Gabriel had insisted. _

 

_ He doesn’t realize he’s unwelcome until Nadia is tipsy on the couch in front of him, sitting in silence as Gabriel goes to check on Rhea who went to bed two hours ago. They’ve had a great day and Jack has spent more time with his Goddaughter in the past 24 hours than he has in two years. He found out she like blue raspberry candies and elephant balloons. _

 

_ He’s watching the door frame, waiting for Gabriel to get back so they can go back to talking like they have been for the last hour. It’s the most civilian Jack has ever felt in his life. _

 

_ “He just can’t do anything without you, huh?” _

 

_ Jack looks up and starts. _

 

_ “What?” _

 

_ Nadia takes a deep drink and places the glass back on the table. _

 

_ “This? I arranged this three months ago so we could finally get some family time you know? And he just couldn’t be without you for three fucking days could he?” _

 

_ Jack doesn’t know what to say. He didn’t mean to be an intruder- thought that he had been included by all of them. He’s embarrassed that that’s apparently not the case. He doesn’t know what to say or how to make this better because it’s not something that he’s done wrong. _

 

_ “I swear he loves you more than he’s ever loved me.” _

 

_ Jack feels his gut sink.  _

 

_ He leaves before Gabriel comes back and walks down to his own room. He packs up and leaves- ends his vacation early. _

 

_ When Gabriel calls him the next day to ask what happened, he lies. Says that something came up and he had to get back. _

 

_ “Shit, what is it? I can get back by tonight if I-” _

 

_ “No. It’s nothing like that- and this is time with your family, Gabe. That’s important.” _

 

_ It’s quiet on the line. _

 

_ “Alright. I’ll see you in a few days then?” _

 

_ “Yeah.” _

 

_ Jack doesn’t say goodbye before he hangs up the call. _

 

_ He tries not to think about just what Nadia’s words meant. _

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on twitter at https://twitter.com/Vertizontally !!!


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